All things freshwater: news, analysis, humor, reviews, and commentary from Michael E. 'Aquadoc' Campana, hydrogeologist, hydrophilanthropist, Professor of Hydrogeology and Water Resources Management in the Geography Program of the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences (CEOAS) at Oregon State University and Emeritus Professor of Hydrogeology at the University of New Mexico. He is Past President of the American Water Resources Association (AWRA), Past Chair of the Scientists & Engineers Division of the National Ground Water Association (NGWA), Past President of the nonprofit NGWA Foundation and President and Founder the nonprofit Ann Campana Judge Foundation, an organization involved with WaSH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) in Central America. He serves on the Steering Committee of the Global Water Partnership (GWP). CYA statement: with the exception of guest posts, the opinions expressed herein are solely those of Michael E. Campana and not those of CEOAS, Oregon State University, ACJF, AWRA, NGWA, GWP, my spouse Mary Frances, or any other person or organization.

Texas Agriculture Law BlogDon't let the name fool you - there are lots of water issues in agriculture and Tiffany Dowell of Texas A&M University does a fabulous job with this important Internet resource. Give it a read - I do every day!

The Way of WaterDr. Jennifer Veilleux records her fieldwork, research, and thoughts about water resources development and management, indigenous rights, ethics, and a host of other issues.

Thirsty in SuburbiaGayle Leonard documents things from the world of water that make us smile: particularly funny, amusing and weird items on bottled water, water towers, water marketing, recycling, the art-water nexus and working.

This Day in Water HistoryMichael J. 'Mike' McGuire, engineer extraordinaire, NAE member, and author of 'The Chlorine Revolution', blogs about historical happenings in the fields of drinking water and wastewater keyed to calendar dates.

Watershed Moments: Thoughts from the HydrosphereFrom Sarah Boon - rediscovering her writing and editing roots after 13 years, primarily as an environmental scientist. Her writing centres around creative non-fiction, specifically memoir and nature writing. The landscapes of western Canada are her main inspiration.

WaterWiredAll things freshwater: news, comment, publications and analysis from hydrogeologist Michael E. Campana, Professor at Oregon State University and Technical Director of the AWRA.

Wednesday, 01 April 2020

Moonshot Missions is a 501(c) environmental nonprofit organization founded by George Hawkins, the former GM of DC Water, to help water utilities that serve economically stressed and underserved communities identify and customize replicable strategies to deliver better services at lower cost. We believe that every community deserves clean water at the tap and in local waterbodies regardless of their zip code.

Water and wastewater services are essential to deliver clean drinking water and ensure safe waterways during the response to the Coronavirus. Water utilities are committed to providing these services, even as the Coronavirus has direct impacts to operations, staffing and finances. Utilities must ensure these essential services are delivered, while protecting the people who make it happen, as well as the facilities, equipment and of course, the customer.

Moonshot Missions, a non-profit organization founded by George Hawkins, the former General Manager of DC Water in Washington DC, has put together a compendium of best practices being implemented by water utilities in the face of this unprecedented challenge. Moonshot staff has compiled this checklist by reviewing resources from water associations, list-serves and dozens of utility response and continuity of operations plans.

We plan for this to be a “living document” that evolves as new practices are implemented. Please email info@moonshotmissions.org if you have suggestions or feedback. We seek only to organize the wisdom you are gaining from your efforts to maintain critical water operations – and welcome your insights so we can make them available to a wide audience.

We suggest scanning the Compendium to compare its suggestions with your current actions to assess whether any of the ideas might be helpful in your Coronavirus response. In summary, Moonshot believes that the following steps are critical for water utilities to protect their staff thereby preserving critical staffing knowledge and their capacity needed to sustain operations:

• Minimize contact with the public to the maximal extent possible.

• Send non-essential personnel to work from home if possible.

• Utilize minimum staffing for critical operations on a rotating basis in order to reduce the probability of infection and husband staffing resources for as long as possible.

• Create virtual control rooms via placement of cameras, use apps like FaceTime and similar services so that some operators can work remotely and provide guidance and support to the reduced staff on-site.

• Identify mission critical supply chains, such as fuel, chemicals and disposal chains such as biosolids, and ensure that they are kept intact with standbys available for redundancy

Operate equipment at a level that reduces potential for failure requiring emergency repairs.

• Have a list of emergency and back up service contacts at the ready.

We recognize that most water utility managers will have already done most if not all of these measures. However, we feel that if even one utility benefits by one of these suggestions, then the compilation of these practices will have been well worth it. The Compendium that follows goes into these best practices in greater detail. We at Moonshot Missions salute the tremendous work that each of you are doing to protect the public health and the environment, every minute of every day. We sincerely wish you all well during this challenging time.

George S. Hawkins, Esq.Founder and President

Andy Kricun, P.E.Managing Director

Sarah Neiderer, MPHSenior Director of Utility Assessments

Stephanie EatingerUtility Assessment Specialist

Natalie HawkinsChief of Operations

Henderson Brown, EsqCounsel

An important resource! Thanks to George and his team.

Check out this video of Georgedelivering the 2019 WaterSmart Innovation jeynote address.Quite a trip!

Enjoy!

"Water should embody the health, hope and promise of every community." - George S. Hawkins

Circle of BlueCircle of Blue uses journalism, scientific research, and conversations from around the world to bring the story of the global freshwater crisis to life. Here you’ll find new water reports, news headlines, and hear from leading scientists.

Drink Water For LifeThe idea is simple. Drink water or other cheap beverages instead of expensive lattes, sodas, and bottled water for a set period of time. A day, a week, a month, Lent, Ramadan, Passover, or some other holiday period.

eFlowNet NewsletterFrom the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) this newsletter has lots of information about environmental flows and related issues.

Sustainable Water Resources RoundtableSince 2002, the Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable (SWRR) has brought together federal, state, corporate, non-profit and academic sectors to advance our understanding of the nation’s water resources and to develop tools for their sustainable management.